White House's Senate strategy: Keep Obama away

The White House and Senate Democrats are preparing an extensive midterm campaign strategy built around one unavoidable fact: Hardly any candidates in the most competitive states want President Barack Obama anywhere near them.

POLITICO spoke with nearly every incumbent up for reelection and aspiring Democratic Senate candidates across the country, but only a handful gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked whether they wanted Obama to come campaign with them.

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“I don’t care to have him campaign for me,” said Alaska Sen. Mark Begich. “I’d rather him come up to see where his policies aren’t working. He’s wrong on ANWR, we’ve had struggles to try to get our permits done down in the southeast for our timber industry, I want to show him how important the military is in Fairbanks.”

Obama’s unpopularity could cost Democrats the Senate, but vulnerable incumbents need the full resources of the White House to hang onto the majority. So the president and party leadership are exploring how to deploy Obama and his team in a way that minimizes complications for Democrats in places like Colorado, Georgia or Kentucky where his polls are underwater. The White House also needs to buck the historic trend of the president’s party losing seats in the midterm election of his second term.

The president has committed to half a dozen Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraisers — so far — for 2014, with the first two expected in the coming weeks in New York and the Washington suburbs, Democratic sources tell POLITICO. He’s also planning to attend fundraisers for the Senate Majority PAC.

The White House is also working closely with the DSCC on a full email and direct mail fundraising effort that Democrats are optimistic will itself raise as much, if not more, than the individual events, sources familiar with the planning say. White House sources say it’s part of a “comprehensive effort” 2014 effort that will include House and governors’ races.

Obama told Senate Democrats at a meeting at Nationals Park last week that he knows his health care law will be used as the “No. 1 attack tool” on Democrats by the Koch Brothers, citing the conservative billionaires by name, according to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

“He said, ‘I understand in some of your states I’m not the most popular politician,’” Durbin, the Senate majority whip, said. “So if you’re going to break from the White House on an issue or a position, understood. But I can help many of you, even in states where I’m not popular with everyone. I can still help, and I’m willing to do everything I can.”

Clinton — and possibly Biden — will be taking the lead for Democrats in his native Arkansas, with Obama staying far away as Sen. Mark Pryor tries to defend his seat. In an interview, Pryor downplayed the role any surrogate would play in his campaign — even though Clinton has already helped with fundraising.

“I don’t get people to come and campaign for me very often,” Pryor said. “To me, in Arkansas, people don’t vote for you because somebody else says vote for you.”

Asked about the prospects of Obama or Biden coming to help, “I’m not going to tell anybody not to,” Pryor said. “We’re going to make the race about Arkansas.”

“I’ve been invited to go into, well, over 128 races so far,” Biden told CNN last week. “And so there are some places the president is considerably more popular than I am, but there’s some places where I can go in and the president can’t.”

Several sources said the White House is debating how and where to deploy the first lady. In 2012, many of her events on behalf of the president’s reelection were focused on voter registration, and so she could help promote turnout and energize the Democratic base without endangering candidates by a close connection to the president — particularly in places like New Orleans, where local turnout could make the difference for Sen. Mary Landrieu.

“They will help us a lot — in lots of different ways,” Bennet said. “I think they’re both committed to doing everything they can to help us.”

Asked if Michelle Obama would campaign for Senate Democrats, Bennet said: “I certainly would hope so. I certainly would love it if she did, but she has other responsibilities, too.”

The president is still likely to hit the trail at some point later this year, although those decisions have yet to be made. He has a busy travel schedule in February and March focused on international affairs — a California summit with the king of Jordan and trips to Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Vatican City, where he’ll meet Pope Francis.